THE MEANING OF WORLD HERITAGE

Forest and Bird, Volume 19, Issue 2, 1 May 1988, Page 30

THE MEANING OF WORLD HERITAGE

y the end of the 20th century humankind has taken the conquest of nature so far that environmental damage threatens the human race with extinction. For nature the reckoning is too heavy: massive deforestation; the erosion and degradation of soils; depletion of the ozone layer and global warming; the disappearance of many plant and animal species; water, air, land and marine pollution of many kinds; expanding human populations, concrete and asphalt; dwindling open spaces, disappearing wilderness . . . The World Heritage Convention is an attempt to halt the world’s slide into environmental chaos, to preserve nature and wilderness and to preserve the legacies of the human cultures that have shaped civilisation. In an era when nature is under extreme pressure around the globe, the World Heritage Convention has managed to transcend political differences and unite more than 100 nations worldwide to work together to protect more than 200 wonders of the world as the common heritage of all humankind. The Rocky Mountains, Mt Everest, Ecuador's the Galapagos Islands, the Great Barrier Reef and the Serengeti plains of Africa are all now protected as World Heritage sites. In an increasingly pessimistic world it is a shining example of international cooperation. What is the World Heritage Convention? The World Heritage Convention is described as the Red Cross for the world’s natural areas. It is now the world’s most successful conservation agreement, with more than 200 sites protected. Adopted by UNESCO in 1972, the Convention developed from widespread concern at the disastrous consequences of the flooding

by Egypt's Aswan dam on the Nile’s archaeological treasures and a desire by many nations to work to protect these and other threatened wonders of the world. The convention is administered by a committee comprising representatives of 21 signatory nations with rotating membership. This committee can comprise delegates from the communist and non-communist world. Does it affect sovereignty? New Zealand loses no sovereign rights over any area that becomes a World Heritage Site. The only force that the Convention can apply is moral if the rules are flouted, the area could lose World Heritage status and thus New Zealand's international reputation may be tarnished. Article 6 of the convention says that "‘it fully respects the sovereignty of the states where sites are situated." Is Private Land affected? No, article 6 of the Convention excludes private land. If however owners of private land wish to protect their land through statute and it meets the criteria it can be added toa World Heritage site. However, such a step is entirely at the landowner’s discretion. Do World Heritage Sites have to be National Parks? No, but they have to be protected by statute or policy. In New Zealand they could, for example, be Conservation Parks, Wilderness Areas, Wildlife Reserves and so on. Sites have to have ‘‘outstanding universal value", however, and the test is a very stringent one. Natural sites try to preserve the finest representative examples of the processes that have shaped the earth's evolution (e.g. glaciation, volcanism, crustal movement), areas with unique features and areas that

host rare and threatened plant and animals. World Heritage in Danger and the World Heritage Fund The World Heritage Committee regularly prepares a list of threatened World Heritage Sites — for example by war, natural disaster, logging, mining, roading or settlement. Member nations are levied and provide voluntary contributions to a Fund which is used to help protect at-risk areas. In Sagarmatha (Mt Everest) National Park the Fund is supporting solar power development to reduce demands on scarce firewood and so save surrounding forest. In Tanzania it is helping fund the College of Wildlife Management which trains staff from the country’s World Heritage Parks, such as Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater. New Zealand and World Heritage New Zealand signed the World Heritage Convention in November 1984. Other member states include the United States, Australia, Poland, Sweden, Turkey, West Germany, France, Canada, Switzerland, Norway, Libya, Cuba, Chile, Argentina and the United Kingdom. It is notable that amongst this list are nations that may have political differences. Despite these they work together in the World Heritage Committee. Although the UK and USA withdrew from UNESCO, they have remained as enthusiastic supporters of the World Heritage Convention. The USA has more World Heritage sites than any other nation. Since 1984, New Zealand has been able to nominate areas for inclusion on the World Heritage list. Two nominations to date Fiordland and Mt Cook/Westland National Parks — have been accepted as World Heritage Sites.